The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH). This is our opportunity to get young adults thinking about plants as more than the source of the air we breathe and the food we eat.
Plant-like life has been around for about 3000 million years. They have witnessed the birth and death of species, have travelled across continents on the heels of explorers, seeded cultures around the world and may soon become the first species to thrive on mars. Humans have tamed them in farms, laboratories and green houses and extracted cures to epidemics as well as sources of addiction. We can only imagine what the plants of the future will look like as we race towards editable genomes, bionics and Food for All!
Interestingly, new research suggests that plants are social and problem-solving beings without self-consciousness and neuronal activity that we assume are needed for intelligence. The hidden lives of these silent and stationary beings have long been the subject of human curiosity and continues to excite our creativity today.
Science Gallery Bengaluru presents PHYTOPIA - a digital pop-up exhibition from 21 - 30 August 2020. We bring together engineers, scientists, designers, artists and biohackers to create an experience for you to explore and experiment beyond the kitchen, the lab and the farm.
PROTECTING PLANTS, PROTECTING LIFE
Science Gallery Bengaluru supports the International Year of Plant Health 2020
ACADEMIC ADVISORS
HARINI NAGENDRA
Ecologist
Harini Nagendra is a Professor of Sustainability at Azim Premji University, where she anchors the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability. Over the past 20 years, her research has examined people-nature relationships in forests and cities from the perspective of both ecology and equity. For her interdisciplinary research and practice, she has received a number of awards including the 2009 Cozzarelli Prize from the US National Academy of Sciences, the 2013 Elinor Ostrom Senior Scholar award, and the 2017 Clarivate Web of Science award. Her publications include the books “Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present and Future” (Oxford University Press, 2016) and “Cities and Canopies: The Tree Book of Indian Cities” (Penguin, 2019) as well as recent publications in Nature, Nature Sustainability, and Science. She writes regularly on public science issues in newspapers, blogs and other fora.
SHANNON OLSSON
Chemical ecologist
All life on Earth interacts through the language of chemistry. Shannon Olsson listens to nature’s chemical conversations across India’s diverse ecosystems. A Fulbright Scholar, Ramanujan, and INK Fellow, Shannon’s research has been featured by CNN, Inverse, Cosmos, TEDx, Syntalk, Sci-Illustrate, Science Gallery Dublin , V&A London, Chemical and Engineering News, and the DST Science Express train. Shannon is currently Director of the EChO network, an international public-private social innovation partnership steered by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. Inspired by nature’s communication, this network is creating a new generation of scientists without borders who think and act across sectors and disciplines. Echo unites citizens, government, industry, academia and NGOs to tackle problems in human and environmental ecosystems through interdisciplinary communication and scientific research.
SITA REDDY
Independent scholar and curator
Sita Reddy is a cultural sociologist of medicine (PhD from UPenn) and a trained museum curator (MA from GWU) with over 18 years of teaching, research and curatorial experience at the intersections of art, science, and critical museology. Her academic publications related to PHYTOPIA reflect this interdisciplinarity, ranging from histories of colonial medicobotanical texts and Company School art to the decolonization of botanical museums and movements for heritage repatriation and archival justice. Most recently, she guest edited Marg magazine’s first-ever special issue on botanical art: The Weight of a Petal: Ars Botanica. She has been Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution and Wellcome Library, and visiting professor at the University of Hyderabad (Department of Fine Arts), where she is now helping to develop a museology curriculum for art, science and humanities students. She is currently working on a book on the Indian medicinal herbal archive, provisionally titled The Jangala Books. She blogs occasionally at ajeebghar.com and hosts the online portal arsbotanica.net.
CONTENT PARTNERS
The John Innes Centre is an independent, international centre of excellence in plant science and microbiology based in Norwich, UK.
The John Innes Centre’s mission is to generate knowledge of plants and microbes through innovative research, to train the scientists of the future and to engage with the public and policymakers. This understanding of nature’s diversity can then be applied to the benefit of agriculture, the environment, human health, and wellbeing.
Set amongst tall trees and lush gardens, the Kasturbhai Lalbhai Museum complex consists of two buildings that have been painstakingly restored by renowned architect Rahul Mehrotra. The main building, a colonial house built in 1905, showcases over a thousand years of Indian art.
The complex also has a small amphitheater with a seating capacity of 250 that can host small performances, musical soirees, talks and discourses. Thus with different and changing events being planned through the year, we hope to create a dynamic and vibrant atmosphere to draw people for a cultural treat.
PROGRAMME PARTNERS
The Bengaluru Sustainability Forum, BSF in short, is an inter-institutional collaborative initiative that aims to address issues relating to long-term sustainability of urban and peri-urban landscapes. Bengaluru Sustainability Forum focuses on public goods and urban commons – including water, air and soil – amongst others.
The main objective of the Bengaluru Sustainability Forum is to convene and disseminate knowledge on various aspects of sustainability in the urban landscape, with a focus on Bengaluru. The Forum aims to achieve this by encouraging conversation and collaboration across a broad range of stakeholders.
The Natural History Museum is both a world-leading science research centre and the most visited natural history museum in Europe. With a vision of a future in which both people and the planet thrive, it is uniquely positioned to be a powerful champion for balancing humanity’s needs with those of the natural world.
The Museum uses its enormous global reach and influence to meet its mission to create advocates for the planet - to inform, inspire and empower everyone to make a difference for nature. They welcome over five million visitors each year, their digital output reaches hundreds of thousands of people in over 200 countries each month and their touring exhibitions have been seen by around 30 million people in the last 10 years.
OUTREACH PARTNERS
The Bangalore International Centre (BIC) a neutral, non-profit, member and donor supported public institution was founded in November, 2005 to enhance dialogue and foster ideas across cultures, religions, regions, societies and economies.
BIC was inaugurated by Former President of India, the Late Abdul Kalam. The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) has hosted BIC since its inception till end 2018.
In 2019, BIC completed the construction of its new building. This 48,000 sq feet, GRIHA compliant premises has been made possible with the generous support from donors, members, institutions and firms.